June 26, 2017

Kyle Bishop looks at players whose fantasy owners should considering cutting or trading for Week 13 of the 2017 fantasy baseball season. These players are potential busts.

Welcome back to the Cut List. Each weekend from now until the end of the season, I’ll be offering my thoughts on players who don’t deserve to keep drawing a nonexistent salary on your fake baseball teams. As we go deeper into the season, expect this list to become more ruthless, but also note the widening of scope to include players who may still have trade value in many leagues.

In addition to the players on the Cut List, we'll also spotlight a player on the Hot Seat: Someone whose situation is worth monitoring, even if it’s not time to hit the ejector seat just yet. Without further ado, here are your Week 13 cut or trade candidates.

Let's get to it.

The Cut List: Week 13

Dustin Pedroia, 2B, Boston Red Sox

Pedroia still offers a plus batting average or on-base percentage, but there’s not much else value to be had by rostering him. He’s got just two home runs and two stolen bases (in five attempts), and with the Red Sox lineup not performing as expected, his run production has been middling. Pedroia has also missed half of his team’s games this month with nagging injuries and is outside the top 25 at second base by both ESPN and Yahoo player rankings.

Mark Trumbo, OF, Baltimore Orioles

Trumbo hit 47 homers last season. After going 0-for-5 on Sunday, he currently owns a slugging percentage below .400. Some pullback should have been expected from his career year, but we’re closing in on the All-Star break and he’s stuck at a whopping 10 bombs. That’s fewer than Kyle Schwarber, who was just demoted to the minors, and fewer than Albert Pujols, who’s carrying a giant fork in his back.

Tanner Roark, SP, Washington Nationals

After his third consecutive awful outing on Sunday, Roark now sports ugly ratios (5.15 ERA, 1.54 WHIP) without even a playable strikeout rate to balance things out. Good as he was in 2016, there’s no reason he should be owned in almost three-quarters of Yahoo leagues right now. That number will likely have fallen by the time you read this, but the point remains.

The Hot Seat: Week 13

James Paxton, SP, Seattle Mariners

True to form, Paxton missed almost all of May with injury. He looked great in his first start back, firing 5 1/3 shutout innings against the Rockies. In four starts since, he’s been atrocious, allowing 17 runs and 40 baserunners in 18 innings. That works out to an 8.50 ERA and 2.22 WHIP. Obviously he’s not this bad, but given that his velocity is down on all pitches and he’s getting less movement on his fastball, my money is on him not being fully recovered from that forearm issue.

Last Week

Todd Frazier had a solid week in what’s shaping up as a bit of a rebound in June. He’s slashed .260/.345/.521 with five homers. Amazing what you can do with a BABIP even approaching league average. Given that he’s still hitting a ton of balls in the air, and too many are of the pop-up variety, that may not last.

Carlos Santana hit a home run last Monday, but had a pretty quiet week otherwise. He’s probably looking forward to the All-Star break.

Rich Hill allowed just one run and struck out eight in his last starts. Three caveats: He once again only pitched five innings, he walked three, and it was the Mets.

Justin Verlander was cruising – he’d racked up 10 strikeouts through 5 1/3 perfect innings. Then Jarrod Dyson got on via a bunt, launching both a Mariners’ rally and a thousand hot takes from old baseball men. Two things: It obviously worked, and anyone willing to troll that hard has earned my respect forever. Jarrod Dyson 2020. Jarrod Dyson forever.

More Week 13 Lineup Prep